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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1940-01-04, Page 3Thursday, January 4tb> 1940 Quality guaranteed SALADA ‘ A Sa mBi Linked With Six Robberies Six major robberies in Western On­ tario in the past two months have been linked to the gang that cached the large quantity of merchandise seized by police at a London Town­ ship farmhouse, police announce, but * meanwhile a score of other household­ ers and merchants are sorting through the two truckloads of suspected loot for’ articles that were stolen from them. Several other thefts and shop­ breakings may be solved by the'police raids that, brought into custody Jack Henson, age 25, of London, who is held in the county jail on an <eight- day remand. Dafoe Resigns as Guardian Toronto — It was learned from a reliable source that Dr. Allan Roy Da­ foe has submitted to the Ontario Gov­ ernment his resignation as guardian of the Dionne Quintuplets, but will con­ tinue to act as physician to the child­ ren. . ’ .Black Sea, degrees be­ toil among 10, will introduce enabling legislation for the 'project which will open the Great Lakes to ocean vessels and de­ velop huge power resources for Can­ ada and the United-States. Does Russia Want Black Sea Port? .Moscow -— Arrival intMoscow of a Bulgarian trade delegation stirred speculation in foreign quarters here as to whether the Soviet Union might be demanding a Black* Sea naval base from Bulgaria. The U.S.S.R. has been concerned about -its position In the Black Sea, 0 0 A» reds of thousands were driven home­ less into the fields and mountains, Fierce, winds from the amid temperatures of 22 low • zero, took a heavy these unprotected people, Want Jap Cabinet to Resign Tokyo — Premier Nobuyuke Abe received a resolution signed by 250 of the 463 members of the Japanese Hpuse of Representatives asking that the Cabinet "give serious considera­ tion to whether it should remain in power,” high commissioner to Eire and Dr, W, A. Riddell, charge d’affaires of the Canadian legation at Washington, has been named high commissioner to New Zealand, the prime minister’s office announced, ’ * Finns’ Ski-Scouts Cut Line Jlelsingfors —* Finnish ski scouts have cut 10,000 Russian troops from communication with their base on the Central Finland border near Salla, re­ ports from Kemijaervi; indicated, Rick­ ed troops of Russian sharpshooters accustomed to fighting on skiis were said to be en route to the front from as far away as Siberia* Law Lectdrer Technically Guilty" Halifax Allan Findlay, youthful Law School lecturer, was found "tech­ nically guilty" of attempting tp com-; municate information about military, naval and air force movements in the Halifax area and was fined $1 and costs, Torpedoed Battleship Reaches Port London — The British ’ battleship which suffered "some damage” when torpedoed by a German submarine, reached port under her own steam, the admiralty announced. Casualties aboard were given as four men miss­ ing,, believed killed, and one seaman seriously injured, t Finns Are Determined London — Finland will continue to guard the gates of the west against "barbarism and brutality" as long as she has men and munitions, George A. Gripenberg, Finnish minister to London, said in a New Year’s mess­ age. Punning to Head War Loan, Committee Ottawa —"Hon. C. A. Dunning will .head the national subscription com­ mittee in connection with the offering of Canada’s first war loan early in 1940, Finance Minister Ralston an­ nounced. ; High Commissioners Named Ottawa Hoiiy. John Hall Kelly, member of the Quebec ' Legislative Council,’has been appointed Canadian To Ignore Plebiscites Simcoe — The plebiscites taken by London, Brantford and Chatham which showed opposition to the ex­ tension of the terms of elected muni­ cipal bodies for the duration of the war, will be ignored by the Ontario Government in estimating the pub­ lic’s opposition when it brings down its bill in the coming session of the Legislature, it was indicated by Hon. Eric Cr.oss. THE REAL PROBLEM OF THE RAILWAYS IS RESTORATION OF AGRICULTURE To Amalgamate Patrol ’ Toronto — Complete amalgamation of the Ontario motorcycle patrol with •the provincial police, effective from < January 1, 1940, was announced by Attorney-General Gordon. A. Conant. Under the plan the patrol branch will cease to exist as a separate branch of the police force and will be brought directly under the control of 12 dis­ trict inspectors of the Ontario Pro-; vincial Police. Fail to Get U.S. Munitions Washington — Finland -sought in vain, to obtain quantities of United States munitions quickly but officials held out hopes for future aid. Seek­ ing hundreds.’ of modern anti-aircraft, anti-tank and other weapons, Lieut.- Gen. Vilho Petter Nennorien, the chairman, and other members of a Finnish military mission,, were told by war department officials that .the United States army is short of the same arms. ■ By R. J. Deachman, M.P. > reduced consumption and then - sharp ------- • , ' price declines. V^heh wages go too , The real problem of our railwayshigh, and “too high” in' this case, is not a railway problem at all. It is: means that wages reach a • level at quite proper to open a story with a'which the products produced cannot paradox if you prove your case, be-; be sold, then we have unemployment. Again will you keep these things in New Russian Commander Moscow — Soviet Russia was reli­ ably reported to have put its military hero of the 1938 Russian-Japanese •Far Eastern clash, Gen. G. M. Stern,' in charge of the invasion of Finland. Gen. K, A. Meretskoff, who has been1 chief of staff of the Leningrad dis­ trict, was called upon for an explana­ tion’ of his failure to score more im­ pressive successes in Finland and t.o have been dismissed from his post. N ’ s *-------- Earthquake Takes Many Lives Ankara, Turkey—Officials estimat­ ed at least 100,000 people were killed or injured in- the series of earthquakes which have spread terror over the An­ atolian Peninsula. Three additional tremors, bitter cold and winds of bliz­ zard velocity which spread fires add­ ed to the damage and panic. Hund- Pope May Visit Other Countries Rome — Pope Pius XII’s visit to the king and queen of Italy constitut­ ed a precedent, enabling*the Pope to visit other countries later on, diplo­ matic and religious, circles said. The visit thus may have important repur- cussions not only in relations between the Holy See and Italy, but in the in­ ternational field. • a ~- India Now Represented in France The high command disclosed that, several days ago the first contingents of na'tive troops from India took up positions at the front beside the Brit­ ish Expeditionary Farce. They were the first subjects of the empire except those directly from the United King-dom to go into service in unit form- ^ie following years are measuied by ations with the land .forces on the Itheir divergence from that level. We lore you close your typewriter. T. _ stretch* forth',.my hands to show that mind as we go on with the story. The , I have ‘’nothing up iuy sleeve add an- : pounce from the beginning the con- j not last' long. The next few years elusion I am going to reach in the end. The- real problem of Canada is the restoration of agriculture - do that and all other problems will be solv­ ed, railways, unemployment, national disunity, high taxation, after that the spiritual problem—I am willing^ to leave that to the churches and the oth­ er spiritual ’ influences at work throughout the land. What, is wrong with the farmer? It’s a long tale but I shall, try to make it brief. We had a war. For a long time we called it the Great War. Now I imagine it will be. known' as Great War Number 1. Prior to that we had a price relationship among the vari­ ous products, which while not favor­ ing agriculture particularly, gave the farmer a square deal - fairly square. So we go back-to 1913 and finding that the proce relationship among dif­ ferent commodities in those distant pre-war days was fairly reasonable we put it down as 100, and the levels in i situation depicted in the last table did I not last long. The next few years ' gave us something different. Prices Farm Products 164.8 ____ 138.5 ......... 127.6 ...•...... 139.1 .......__ 160.5 ............... 159.6 ____ 162.2 ......... 158.4 ......... 158.6 ......... Wage , Rates ... 189.9 ... 180.2 ..... 184.2 ..... 186.4 .. 185.1 .. 186.3 ... 190,4 ... 192.2 ..... 196.0 western front. I look well enough but ‘■I need your help., • “BELIEVE IT OR NOT—I’ve spent a quarter of my life in The Hospital for Sick Children. But then, I’m only six months old. My little feet were being straightened «o that I’d be able to romp and play when I’m older. # “I’m all better now — going home to-morrow. I feel just fine, too, except when I think of the debts I’ll be leaving behind. You see, Daddy isn’t; able to pay for the wonderful care and treatment I received. “The Government and the city I live in, together, paid $2.35 each day I was here. Unfortunately, that isn’t enough because, it costs the Hospital an average of $3.45 every day to treat me and each other little patient. “More than eight thousand little children were cared for here last year, just like me. We’re the ones who cause the large deficit of The Hospital for Sick Children every year— but everyone admits that we’re worth it. “It isn’t our fault that we get sick or become crippled, but the least we can: do is appeal to you for help—particularly when we know that this Hospital does not share in the Toronto Federation for Community Service funds because Public Ward patients are admitted from any part of the Province. “Won’t you send a donation to the Hospital to help meet' this deficit? Even a small gift would be greatly appreciated. “PLEASE , . . send it TODAY!” 0 $ 1921 - 1922 - 1923 - 1924’- 1925 - 1926 - 1927 - 1928 - 1929 - After 1929 came the. deluge. Wage rates as shown by this table were higher, substantially higher than farm prices. But there was worse to come. The price of .farm products fell still further - the decline in wage rates was relatively ■ insignificant. The' high wage rates caused a decline in em­ ployment. Employment was not avail­ able at the prevailing rate of wages. But the wage rate determined the price of the things the farmer had to buy.. There are 4,800,000 people in 'Canada farming or directly .dependent on farming. . When the purchasing power of the farmer Was destroyed, the financial basis of prosperity dis­ appeared. The surprise to the super­ ficial student of the problem was that prosperity lingered so long. The fact, is we had* exceptionally large crops in the 1926-1929 period - this was the sustaining factor. If the crops had been poor, the collapse would have come sooner. A few figures will make clear what followed - we now enter the depres­ sion. V 'A ■must get this, point clearly in mind. If the price doubled in future we would say the price level was 200 - a ten percent increase would, mean a level of 110 - a 20% decline from the 1913 level would, bring it to 80. Now remember this is not just a general price level, it is the level of all groups of commodities at that time, farm products, manufactured goods, raw materials and even wages. Read this the *1 have scarcely touched the railways, so far - let's start now. Here is me story of traffic carried through peak’s and a hollow. Freight Carried 1928 - 118,650,000 tons 1933 - 57,364,000 tons 1937 - 82,220,000 tons Between the bottom of the (1933) and 1937 every classification of freight except one, Farm-Products, increased in volume - that reached its lowest point. It stood at 13,7000,000 tons instead of 30,176,000 in 1928. If volume of farm products moved back to the 1928 level, it would be up 17,- 000,000 tons but that is not the prob­ lem. Prices declaration 40% below returned to purchasing wduld put idle men to work, the in­ creased volume of business would tax the capacity, of the railways - that problem would'be settled. The Can­ adian National was out -of the red from 1926 to 1928 inclusive. The an­ swer is that farm prices cannot be re­ stored. How do “we know? - we have never tried. Wc do know that we cannot cure unemployment without Fine! exclaims the reader, you have stated the problem; how is tins to ue done - how can we solve the farm problem? The farmer cannot save himself, he has been worn out by the desperate years of the depression. I have read the reports of the annual meeting of the U.F.O. I doubt if it brought forward 'a solution. But why should we ask the farmers to save themselves. No other section of the community thinks of doing such a thing. When in trouble go to the gov­ ernment and ask for help - that is the .customary code. There has been too much of it - 99 times out of a 100 the bill is passed on to some other party. We have' too few people in Canada who accept the dictum of Addison - "A .statesman may do much for com­ merce - most by leaving it alone.” The problems of agriculture are tre­ mendous. It needs the help of the ur­ ban dweller, who far too often is out of sympathy, not because of funda­ mental antagonism but because of his failure to understand. The next time you look at one of our problems, will you give your mind a farm slant - climb the fence on the old farm, in imagination at least, and look things from that point of view. restoring agriculture - we have tried and failed. We admit we cannot solve the railway problem by present me­ thods. Government ownership is not a solution. It is an admission of de­ feat. It would place the burden squarely on the taxpayers - that is not a solution - it is a fixation of failure. It will be said that I have suggest­ ed a reduction in wages. I have not. I have attempted to point out that high wage rates mean lower total wage payments. There is abundant proof of that Wages are high enough in the railways but total wage pay­ ments in 1926 amounted to $260,000,- 000 - in 1937 to $193,000,000. Who lost on that deal? - railway labor. If the railways had been on their own and compelled to fix rates which would have^paid all costs, total wage, payments would.have been cut in two. How would the building trades far­ ed? Rotten - everybody knows that! They have high nominal wages and ho employment. In fact, there is an appearance of sound argument in the contention that the burden carried by some classes of labor is almost equal to the burden of the farmer, The trouble is that labor fails to see the cause. Another Step in Seaway Plan Toronto — Reliable informants said that Ontario’s agreement with the Do­ minion Government for participation in the St. Lawrence waterway project ■has been completed in all but minor details. It was learned also that the Ontario Government at the next ses­ sion of Legislature, opening on Jan. 'j HITCH-HIKES ON BOMBER two - products, manufactured goods,dip isn’t many people who can get a lift part way home in a modern bomb­ ing plane, but Frank Walker of Tor­ onto,- did. Walker, editor of an avia­ tion magazine, was in California checking over warplane production for the Allies there, and he got per- mission to fly from Bur-bank, Calif,* to Dallas, Texas, in a Lockheed Hud­ son bomber* enroute for delivery to the British government, The pilot was Jimmie'Mattern (RIGHT), test pilot for the Lockheed company, and fam­ ous rouhd-'tlnj-world flier. * I a. ■ . paragraph twice; if you miss meaning the whole ’story is lost. Now what happened to the price levels? The war cam.e in 1914 and .things went off’* with a bang. The price of farm commodities rose - the farmer was prosperous. Because it was’that kind of a war - the farmer for a time got the best of the deal. Labor was prosperous too - it had full employment. There is always full em­ ployment when farm prices are in fair relationship to wage rates and manu­ factured products. Let Us compare the price of farm' products with tile wages of labor during the war period. We start again from 1918 equal 100. '<jj' ’Prices Farm Products 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 Right here there ate one or two points which ought to be made clear. Prices of farm products Should fake into account the risk tun by the far­ mer, In a perfect world prices of farm products should be relatively higher than prices of other products in order to carry the risk of crop .failures that occur from time to time. Besides there is more hand work on a farm. The rate of mechaniitatioft is slower and so the tendency should be for farm products to carry a relatively higher level of prices than manufac­ tured goods. Further, When prices go too high they cause over-production, - 127.7 86.1 - Z5.1 - 79.8 Wage Rates .. 197.1 .. 189.1 .. 177.1 .. 168.3 .. 170.5 175.4 .. 178.6 .. 191.7 199.4 * in August last before the of war were more than the 1926 level. If these that level, the .increased power of the farmers and 1913 100 110.8 124.3 148.3 207.5 211.9 233.1 258.8 Wage Rates 100 101.3 102.2 109.5 125.6 147.2 173.4 207.7 Prices Farm Products 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934* - 92.6 1935 - 99.6 1936 - 109.6 1937 - 139.3 1938 - 116.1 Aug. ’39 - 90.2 .(Prior to War) *Exact wage levels for 1939 not available but approximately the same as 1938. During the years 1930 to 1939 farm prices were still hugging the level of 1913 - wages were 100% higher than in 1913. In the circumstances how could the farmer have been prosper­ ous? With reducecj purchasing pow­ er on the farms, how could we have full employment? With both condi­ tions rail traffic was reduced. The report of the National Employ­ ment Commission in 1938 put the na­ tional income (income of all the peo­ ple of Canada) at $3,385,000,000 - the farm share was $449,000,000 or 14.7 of the total; roughly 35% below the level of 1926. The figure was not net income. Against this would have to be charged taxes, maiiitehance, repairs and operating expenses. It meant that net farm income had practically disappeared. While conditions have been somewhat better in the last year or two, farm Income is far below what it ought to be - the situation was be­ coming worsd when tlm war broke, of a house. Windows are shattered and cfaeks are made at 120 yards. At pltasiae a program of education. These sketches show the effect of bombs as EUROPE GOES BELOW WHEN THE BOMBERS COME ,i I2O YDS. ■■ ■ i * & ... . r * The shelter is the safest place of all during an air raid. That’s the slog- _______v _ ____ ___________ an A.R.P. officials stress to British they fall within 126, 30 and 20 yards householders, Without serious raids on Britain to offer warning, they em- 30 yards the walls are wrecked by 1 small bomb. At 20 yards the house will be demolished.